Solaris Gets the Linux Touch

Janus is known as the Roman god of beginnings and the
guardian of gates and doors, which may be why Sun Microsystems chose the name to help bolster its Linux strategy.
With 'Project Janus,' Sun customers can run Linux binary applications unchanged on their Solaris operating systems.

The network computer maker previewed a new
feature of its Solaris 10 operating system, codenamed "Project Janus." First introduced
back in April 2004 to Solaris Express subscribers, the new technology will
let customers run Linux binary applications unmodified and un-recompiled on
Solaris without having to acquire extra x86-based hardware. The technology
was released during this week's LinuxWorld in San Francisco.

Critics have accused Sun of being lukewarm in supporting Linux. At LinuxWorld
three years ago, Sun went public with its first low-cost Linux server -- the LX50, which has since been discontinued. After shunning Red Hat
back in the boom times, the company has spent considerable time and effort
trying to convince the open source community of its assurance of hardware
and software support for not only Red Hat products but for SUSE Linux, as
well.

With that in mind, Sun said it has given the Project Janus platform a
test run on a number of applications, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, Oracle
9.2.i, SAS, and BEA WebLogic. A complete list of tested applications
is expected to be available when Sun releases Solaris 10 later this year.

With an interoperable Solaris OS/Linux environment, Sun said developers
can use a single workstation/server to develop, test, and install programs
for both environments. In addition, system administrators can transfer
common administration skills between platforms; and when used with N1 Grid
Container software, Sun said customers can create a virtual Linux
environment on a Solaris OS system, isolating Solaris OS and Linux
applications from each other and from system faults.

"Our strategy has always been to provide the very best interoperability
for heterogeneous environments," John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice
president for software, said in a statement. "Now customers can leverage all
the breakthrough attributes of the Solaris 10 operating system with existing
investments in the Linux applications at a price lower than what they are
paying for Linux. There is no longer a reason to make sacrifices when
choosing between Linux and Solaris."

While Sun said Project Janus is 100 percent compatible with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL 3), the company did not say if or how it would
support Novell's SUSE Linux or other enterprise
distributions.

Janus is the latest in a string of maneuvers by Sun to curry favor with
the Linux and open source sector. Earlier this week, Sun previewed its
inaugural Linux port of its Ray Server Software. The software now
lets companies host Sun Ray thin clients running on Novell's SUSE Enterprise
8 or Red Hat Linux 3.0 servers. Previously, Sun Ray systems were only
available on servers running the Solaris OS and SPARC semiconductors.